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How to do Your Own Makeup for Day & Night

Believe it or not, I am terrible at doing my own makeup. I’m decent at doing it for a friend, but when it comes to my own face, I never get it right. I have been wanting a step by step lesson for ages so I asked my London makeup artist, Emma Lovell, to show me how. One of my gorgeous school mum friends from my son Mosey’s class agreed to be the model (thank you, Kate!), and I learned so much. I hope it’s helpful for some of you!

Our Model

My friend Kate Skrypec was our model for the day, and Emma Lovell replicated the same makeup techniques she used for me in Venice. Scroll down to the bottom to see the amazing final results and the products used for each step!

Before you start: Skin prep

Before you start to think about applying makeup, it’s important to take good care of your skin by cleaning and moisturizing. These are vital steps that yield the best final results.

Before applying makeup, Emma always cleans the face and neck using a cleansing water and cotton pads.

Next, Emma pats moisturizer on Kate’s face and neck. Apply by dabbing a bit on a few key sections—the forehead, chin, cheeks—now rub the moisturizer in, rubbing upwards and moving from the center out. Emma spends a few minutes making sure she’s really blended the moisturizer into Kate’s skin. One of Emma’s many tips is to moisturize the entire neck, including the back; this keeps the front nice and taut! Don’t forget to always moisturize your lips using the lip balm of your choice.

Products Used

We can’t recommend washing your face and neck with the Clarisonic Blue Cleansing System enough. It’s rapidly become one of our must-haves with a marked improvement in our skin.

Daytime Makeup

Emma recreates the makeup she usually does for my daytime interviews and appearances.

Step 1: Foundation

When looking for the right foundation, try and match it to your neck rather than your face as you want your face color to blend seamlessly between the two.

Emma applies a few dabs of Jemma Kidd’s Light As Air Foundation to the forehead, nose, cheeks, and chin. Notice Emma puts the foundation on her hand first and uses her fingers to apply it and work it onto Kate’s skin. Always start from the center and work outwards.

Step 2: Concealer

Emma puts some more concealer on her hand and uses a brush to apply layers under the eyes, on the chin, in the t-zone, and around the nose—in the winter, these are the places where people need the most coverage. As always, go slow, and don’t use it all up at once.

Step 4: Eyeshadow

Emma likes to use a creamy eyeshadow like the ones from Ellis Faas. She uses a brush to slowly apply the eyeshadow blending it into the socket line (but not all the way up to the eyebrows!). Don’t dab a lot on all at once. Build the color slowly and in layers. With a small brush, also add a tiny line of shadow under the eye.

Step 5: Mascara

Emma puts a smudge of mascara straight onto her hands and uses a tiny, flat-ended brush to apply. She starts at the root and moves to the tip of each eyelash, making sure to define every single lash. Dark brown is great for rich, daytime color.

Emma now uses the Mascara brush to coat every single lash. Remember, work in layers and don’t overload your brush. The idea is to build up slowly!

Step 6: Eyebrows

Another must that Emma insists on is filling in the eyebrows as it’s the best way to frame the face. Choose a color that is slightly paler than your natural color. Fill in your eyebrows in light feathery strokes, making sure to accentuate and elongate your features as much as possible.

Now, using a clean mascara wand (could be from an old makeup set that you’re not using anymore), brush out the hairs.

Products Used

Jouer Brow Definer comes in a variety of shades and with a mascara wand, which is a must for defining brows.

Step 8: Lips

Emma always mixes lipstick to get exactly the color she wants. First she dabs Kate’s lips directly with the stick. Then, she mixes the colors directly on her fingers, alternating lipsticks, and applies directly on Kate’s lips.

Transition into Night time

For my red carpet makeup in Venice, Emma only had 20 minutes to prepare, so she built on the daytime makeup she’d already done. Here’s how Emma transitioned on Kate.

Step 1: Eyeliner

Squeeze some liquid liner directly onto your hand and with a brush, apply to the very top of the eyelashes—starting from the middle of the eye and going out. Mix black and brown for a rich color. Use a slightly bigger brush or a Q-tip to blend.

Emma now draws a line with an eye pencil just above the line she’s made already with the liquid liner. Here you want to work across the eye, not just from the middle. Using a brush, blend and extend out.

Step 2: Eyelashes

Use one coat of black mascara to make the eyes pop. As before, build slowly and in layers, from the roots to the ends. For a dewy eye look, put a bit more on the middle lashes (this rounds the eye).

Step 3: Lips

Use a lipliner that is one shade darker than the lipstick of your choice. Be sure that your pencil is nice and sharp. Start with the cupid’s bow of the lips, then the bottom lip and slowly extend out to the sides.

When you use lip liner, rather than using your fingers, it’s good to use a small, flat brush to apply lipstick for precision’s sake.

This one’s been passed on for generations: Use a tissue to blot. Finish up with a dab of lip gloss. Emma uses her fingers for this, too.

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